Images - Introduction

An image in this context is an electronic representation of the Item described in the Item Card which is stored in a separate data file. The most usual type of Item is a document. The most common file format is a .tiff image, that is, a picture of document which has been scanned and saved with the file extension .tif.

Note, however, that the Item does not have to be a document and that the linked electronic file can be of any file type which your computer can open.

An Item

The primary function of Openlaw is listing documents for litigation, and many of Openlaw's functions, and some of its terminology, is dedicated to this. There are however, other things to be listed in litigation, and litigation is not the only use for the listing and sorting capabilities of Openlaw. 'Items' may be other tangible things referred to in a dispute such as ships or packing cases, or intangible things such as dates to make up a chronology. These may or may not have an 'Image' - there is no requirement that an Item Card has any electronic file attached to it.

An Image

Openlaw supports other file formats as well, including Portable Document Format (.PDF) images or Microsoft Word or Excel files - any file-type which is properly installed on your PC. Increasingly, the 'Image' is a message extracted from a mail system which will open complete with its header information and any attachments. Different levels of functionality are available for different file types. The fullest range of Openlaw functions relate to .tiff images and most of the explanation in this Manual concerns them.

In a simple case, images or other files are put into a single Image Set (called 'Case Images') in the default location (the Case's Images folder) and will be found without any further action on the part of the user. If this is not appropriate (eg because there is insufficient disk space in the default location) images can be put somewhere else or spread between two or more locations on a network.

Openlaw also supports multiple image sets, that is, parallel groups of images with more than one image belonging to an Item card. The user can then select which image is used for any particular purpose. This allows you to keep a "clean" set, a redacted set (i.e. one with sections of image blacked out for Disclosure purposes) and an annotated set (i.e. one with user comments and highlighted passages).